This invention relates to an apparatus for rinsing out the insides of containers for holding liquids. More particularly but not exclusively, it relates to an apparatus for rinsing out empty drums for agricultural pesticides and water-soluble industrial fluids.
Agricultural pesticides are typically sold in metal drums which range in size from 30 up to 100 gallons. When a drum for pesticides has become empty, before it can be discarded in a landfill or transported without compliance with regulations on hazardous materials, government regulations require that the inside of the drum be thoroughly rinsed (usually three times) so as to remove all remaining pesticides.
A number of devices have been proposed for automatically rinsing out empty containers for pesticides. These devices generally employ concentric inner and outer pipes. A rinsing fluid such as water is introduced into the container through the outer pipe and sprayed against the inner surfaces of the container, while pesticide and the rinsing fluid are removed from the container via the inner pipe.
However, conventional rinsing devices have a complicated structure, and in particular they have a complex seal arrangement which makes them expensive to manufacture and repair.